The Kremlin

building complex, Moscow, Russia

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Alternative Title:
The Moscow Kremlin

Detail from The Tree of the Muscovite State, by Simon Ushakov, 1668, showing a section of the walls of the Kremlin, with the tree being watered by Ivan I Kalita and the Russian Orthodox metropolitan Peter, with Tsar Alexis (left) and his first wife, Mariya Ilinichna Miloslavskaya, and two sons by her (right); in the Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.

Novosti Press Agency

The Moscow Kremlin, originally built 1156, has undergone frequent enlargements and reconstructions. Its present enclosure dates from the 16th century.

Tass/Sovfoto

Iconostasis in Archangel Cathedral (1505–08), the Kremlin, Moscow.

Novosti Press Agency

Cathedral of the Annunciation (Blagoveshchensky Sobor), in the Kremlin, Moscow; it was built in 1484–89 and rebuilt in 1562–64.

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major reference

As throughout its history, the Kremlin remains the heart of the city. It is the symbol of both Russian and (for a time) Soviet power and authority, and it has served as the official residence of the president of the Russian Federation since 1991.
The Kremlin’s crenellated red brick walls and its 20 towers (19 with spires) were built at the end of the 15th century, when a host of Italian...

construction

...and Suzdalian cultural traditions. Moscow began to attract the artists, craftsmen, and learned monks who built the eclectic but “national” churches of Ivan III’s otherwise Italianate Kremlin and who wrote the revised national, pro-Muscovite versions of the chronicles that had been kept in Rostov, Ryazan, and Novgorod. The regional traditions were not always easily reconciled....

contribution by Kazakov

In 1776 Kazakov began the construction of the Senate in the Moscow Kremlin. The building’s plan was determined by the shape of the allocated plot of land: Kazakov built a pentagonal interior structure within the triangular exterior structure. At the apex of the triangle he made a ceremonial round chamber, with an unusually large spherical cupola of about 80 feet (25 metres) in diameter.

history of Moscow

...century. Defense was essential to protect the growing settlement, and in 1156 Prince Dolgoruky built the first fortifications: earthen ramparts topped by a wooden wall with blockhouses. This was the Kremlin. The origin of the word
kremlin is disputed; some authorities suggest Greek words for “citadel” or “steepness,” others the early Russian word ...

Russian architecture

The original Moscow Kremlin dates from 1156. The oldest remaining section dates from the 14th–15th century and is located in the southwest portion of the current complex, which is triangular in shape and covers an area of some 70 acres (28 hectares). It lost its importance as a fortress in the 1620s but was used as the centre of Russian government until 1712 and again after 1918....

...the new city of Constantine—the “third Rome”—and aspiring to rival the older centres of culture, launched a building program commensurate with its international importance.
The Kremlin and two of its important churches were rebuilt by Italian architects between 1475 and 1510. These churches, the Assumption (Uspensky) Cathedral and the cathedral of St. Michael the...

...assumed importance, there was a brief interest in Western cultural developments. Thus, in 1475 Fioravanti, who had been in Hungary earlier, was brought to Moscow. Soon Tsar Ivan resolved to rebuild the Kremlin, most of which was still of wood. From 1485 to 1516 the Italian architects Antonio Solario and Marco Ruffo enclosed the Kremlin with brick walls and erected within them the Granovitaya...